Thursday, May 10, 2007
Thursday 3 May 2007
May Day in France meant as usual a Jour de Fête, La Fête du Travail as well as La Fête du Muguet (lily of the valley) so that markets and florists were full of sprigs and plants, and pâtisseries were selling cakes decorated with real or plastic lily of the valley.
There is no lily of the valley in our garden, but the newly enlarged flower bed is looking marvellous, with red and white tulips, the original roses, lupins, transplanted irises and peonies and lots of little pansies and other small flowers. The cherry blossom has been over now for a week or so, but there are already lots of little green fruits which I see when I look up to hang washing on the line. Last year the apple blossom arrived as the cherry blossom finished; not so this year, there seems to be hardly any apple blossom at all, just lots of green leaves. We think this may be the kind of tree which has a large harvest every other year, which is fine by me as we still have lots of apples in the freezer and on the shelves in the outhouse. The red rhododendrons are just coming into flower, the new pink ones from last year are a little behind. The hydrangea foliage is wonderfully green, although no flowers yet as they are very sheltered, but there are one or two flowers on the oleanders. The roses are almost in flower, in fact the « hidden » bush between my study window and the road is a mass of buds, and today I have cut roses for indoors from it for the first time, two vases full, reddish yellow.
May Day also meant the Foire à Tout at La Ferrière sur Risle, very different from last year when we (and family guests) went in the pouring rain and cold. This year it was warm and sunny and consequently far more difficult to park, as there were so many extra visitors. We had to park so far down a road leading out of the village that the man in the next car said any further and we should be in Paris!
It always amazes me that there are the same kind of things on sale every time; for example at any given fair there are always at least two or three bedpans; and some animal cages, aquariums and pet beds, presumably complete with the ghosts of long-departed pets. There are also several books on slimming, whether the owners have been so successful they don’t need them any more, or have given up in despair, is not clear. Less interestingly, there are always lots of children’s clothes and toys, knickknacks from the 1970’s and coffee cups which appear to have come from cafés.
The La Ferrière sur Risle fair is a bit more varied however because of the monthly antique fairs there, so the usual junk was diluted amongst more unusual items, for example a large white cardboard box labelled Christian Dior de Paris, containing a voluminous white net wedding veil, fastened to a small headdress of white flowers, also labelled Christian Dior de Paris. I would like to know who bought it, if anyone. There was a Bible in eight volumes for 10 euros, and lot of interesting furniture, including a mirror which I thought might do instead of the one we saw at the antiques barn - at a much better price - but N thought it wasn’t big enough.
Since the last fair, and since he found a huge empty wine bottle abandoned at the bottle bank (it wouldn’t fit in the hole at the top) N has been collecting interesting old bottles for a display in one of the outhouses, and managed to find a couple more at La Ferrière sur Risle. He also bought two nineteenth-century framed fashion prints. I bought a little sign saying « Vestiaires » which I thought would do for the coat cupboard and a video of the film « Sense and Sensibility » part of which I saw on TV recently, but my best buy was a footstool. I have been looking at/for these for some time now, and admired one I saw on a BBC antiques programme; mounted on rockers with a slatted part on one side (for the feet) and an upholstered part one the other (for the calves). The one I found was just such a model; the upholstery is golden velvet, so blends in nicely with everything here, and it was 6 euros! It needed some dusting and cleaning and all the joints tightening, but is wonderfully comfortable. What is more, it means that the white plastic footstool has now gone out into the garden as an outdoor coffee table, something else I was looking for at the fair. (We had a nice little wooden one from IKEA, but had to keep bringing it in whenever it rained.)
Since then N has decided that the framed prints would make an admirable birthday present for his daughter, and that the mirror bought at the fair last week - the frame of which he has since gilded - is to be given to the other daughter. This gives him an excuse to buy things at fairs, without having to decide where to put them once they are home. It also means we can take them in the car with us in 3 week’s time, and not have to worry about buying something postable.
Over the last month or so lots of new film channels have been added to our satellite TV possibilities; films of all kinds, old, new, French, English, American, comedies, classics and so on. It means checking through hundreds of lists of films in small print in order not to miss anything, and so far I have seen « The Talented Mr Ripley » several weeks ago, and last week « Psycho » which I very bravely sat up late to watch on my own, and one afternoon this week « Maurice » from the novel by E M Forster. Each film seems to be shown a few times over a few days, which makes it easier not to miss. It certainly makes up for there being no cinema near here. Nothing else very interesting at the moment, but a few more towards the end of the month (when we will probably not be here!)
We have been enjoying the peace and quiet in the garden, and not having to go anywhere in particular. N is trying to practice Brahms ready for next week, and I have spent some time re-drafting my Will, using N’s as a model. It has taken him some months to sort out the best way of doing this, and managed at last to discuss it with a solicitor (someone at the same firm who acted for me with my house purchase) when we were both last in Paris. My own Will was something I was leaving until all the guests had gone, and I’m pleased to say it is now more or less finished, and we hope to see the solicitor again when we are next in Paris. The other thing I am pleased to have finished and out of the way is my tax return - not very complicated, but the first time I have done it on my own, as last year the lady at the tax office in Verneuil filled it in for me. N has not received his yet; Saint-Denis must take longer then LNL.
I have also managed to do two lots of exercise DVDs, including the new one, and am enjoying smaller and simpler meals, especially getting back to my usual pre-guest breakfasts (grapefruit, yoghurt and a small piece of toast) instead of croissants, although they are nice occasionally. Today we have both been to the hairdresser, so are both nice and tidy. My usual stylist was not there, so I was cut by the younger woman who usually deals with N; we had a nice talk about gardens and cats.
Saturday 5 May 2007
Yesterday was my birthday, so we had decided on a day out to Caen, somewhere we’ve not been to since arriving in Normandy, and, like Rouen, easy to get to by train from Bernay. The weather was a shock; cold and cloudy with temperatures a lot lower than Thursday, when I was sitting in the garden in a sleeveless T-shirt, thinking it was so hot I should have to go in. Yesterday I had decided to wear my new suit, but had to wear a raincoat over the top and was still cold, wishing I had socks on. It didn’t actually rain all day, but rather coloured our impression of Caen.
We hadn’t been able to get a street plan of the city, either before we left or at the station - an uninspiring modern building presumably built after the bombing of WW2 - but on coming out found a tram stop and took one to a stop marked City Centre and Tourist Office. Unlike at Rouen, it was quite a distance. We then found a very old church called Saint Pierre, both of us surprised as we knew there was very little of the old Caen left, and further surprised when we went in as it was actually warmer than outside! (Usually, especially in Italy, it is a relief to get out of the heat into a cool church.)
We found the excellent Tourist Office, and spent some time there; not only was it warm but there was a lot to look at, and we got a street plan and I found some nice postcards, and an interesting free English-language magazine for people living in Normandy. (I thought perhaps we should tell them about the Lexique. We need to get some handbills made.) The most interesting thing to see seemed to be the Château, so we made our way there, up a very grassy, very cold and windy hill.
It was William the Conqueror’s castle; he seemed by far to be the most notable figure in Caen, but as far as I was concerned the best thing was the Musée de Normandie, lots of Gallic and Roman things to see, maps and layouts, and quite a few 19th century things - pottery, costumes, farm implements, not surprisingly lots of things for cider-making and dairy equipment, but not much from the centuries in between! In fact N asked why there were no medieval exhibits, and was told that they preferred to have real relics to models or pictures, which presumably meant they didn‘t have any. They did have good postcards however, and much cheaper than at the Tourist Office.
After this we wandered down a nearby main street full of little shops, but remarkably few restaurants. I nipped into a branch of Sephora while N looked in another church and we finally decided on a modest little restaurant (mainly in order to get warm) where I had an tasty open Greek sandwich and N had fish. Not the most memorable of birthday meals!
The two things N remembered from his previous visit to Caen were the Abbaye aux Femmes (for nuns) and the Abbaye aux Hommes (for monks) both high monuments, still visible high above the more modern buildings. After lunch we set off for the Abbaye aux Hommes; the original building had been added to in the 18th century and part is now used as municipal offices. We saw guided tours advertised and on enquiring found they took an hour and half, which is rather long if you’re only there for the day, so declined but were told we could visit the chapel to see the tomb of William the Conqueror, which we did, and were very pleased to have seen it.
On coming out we found ourselves in front of little shopping centre, which looked attractively warm; so went in and N spent a long time looking in FNAC and I looked mainly in card shops, but also at Maisons du Monde. After that it seemed to be time to make for home, so we found the return tram to the railway station (the woman in the next seat had a cat in a travelling basket and was busy telling all the passengers how it had jumped out of a fourth floor window and broken its front paw, and this was the third day running they had been on the bus to the vet …….) At the station we had to wait 45 minutes for the next train, so had tea outside a café opposite; outside rather than inside as N found it too smoky. By the time the train arrived we were very cold indeed.
Once back at Bernay station it was still quite early, so we called in at the supermarket to buy some birthday dinner and special offer champagne (I had imagined we would be back quite late having had a large lunch, so hadn’t planned anything.) We also went to the garden centre as N wanted to replace two more currant bushes, and I said I would get a new watering can - as a sort of birthday present from me to us both; the one I brought from Cambridge having finally died, in spite of N’s clever repairs. We wanted to do the garden centre shopping on Friday rather than having to make a special trip today, as there was food shopping to be done at Champion this morning (much nearer) for the musical guests due on Monday and N is still trying to find time to practise Brahms. When we got back to the house in the evening it was so cold we switched on the heating again.
Wednesday 9 May 2007
Sunday was the second round of the presidential election; the excitement mounted all day (although not much to be seen in our village) and the TV coverage got more and more dramatic - although very professional - until the result was announced at 8.00; the next president of France will be Nicolas Sarkozy, not really a great surprise.
For the string quartets visit, Jean and Brigitte were coming from Paris by car in time for lunch on Monday, and N was due to pick up Simone from L’Aigle station at about 2.00, so we hoped J & B would arrive reasonably early, in time for N to have some lunch. In the morning I went along to the market to get strawberries, raspberries and cheese, and found myself looking a large poster advertising painting, re-roofing and re-surfacing of façades; the last word caught my eye as not only did we never have a response from the original « façade man » but had heard nothing from Monsieur A on the subject either, and were beginning to think we would never be able to get it done. The man took my name and door number, and said he would be in touch; I couldn’t help thinking it was not well timed, with N being busy with musicians.
But he turned up not long after with a colleague; fortunately before any music began - and after they had both discussed things with N said he would be back later with an estimate. Meanwhile I continued preparing salade niçoise and apple cake, and wishing lunch could be in garden as with the last guests, but it was far too cold, grey and windy. J & B arrived at about 12.45, so we had lunch straight away, in the dining room as we were only four, giving me the chance to use a tablecloth and napkins that hadn’t seen the light of day since Ainsworth Street. N left to fetch Simone before dessert while I sat and chatted with J & B.
We had just finished when Jean called that there was someone at the front door to discuss painting, and I let in the man with the estimate at the same moment as N and Simone came in the garden door. N took the painter into my study - the salon was all set up and rearranged with music stands and lamps ready for playing - while I welcomed Simone, showed her her room, and made coffee. (Jean had the Italian room, Simone the attic bedroom and Brigitte was in N’s study.)
They played various quartets - not only Brahms but Schubert and Dvorak too - all the rest of Monday afternoon and most of Tuesday. As last August - but much more peacefully! - I enjoyed cooking and preparing meals with my own private string quartet in the next room; it was amazing to come in from the outhouse or fetching the bread and there they all were, still playing! A couple of times I went in to sit down and listen properly - N specially wanted me to hear the Dvorak American Quartet - and this was an even greater pleasure, looking round at the room and the house while I listened; the sofa was pushed back against the French windows which gave quite a different aspect. Once or twice there was even some sunshine.
Tuesday - May 8 - was another jour de fête, to commemorate the ending of WW2, and like last year there were posters in the village advertising the ceremony at the War Memorial. I wanted to go as before, but wondered if the French guests would think it rather strange; in the event by the end of Tuesday morning they wanted a break and some fresh air, so we ended up going along, all five of us; first of all in the rain, then when it cleared under clouds and strong winds. We arrived well in time; the ceremony started late but began eventually, this time with the local volunteer firemen marching with banners, followed as before by a few anciens combattants and some stray gendarmes, some of them with medals.
Like last year, it was the same mixture of the moving and the comical (tinny recording of the Marseillaise; different shapes and sizes of firemen and women shuffling into position) but differently, the names of the dead on the War Memorial were all called out loud, about a dozen from each world war, each followed by the words « Mort pour la France », (Died for France) which I had heard of but never witnessed. We saw our deputy mayor lay the wreath, and the mayor - whom we had not seen before - thanked us all for coming, and asked everyone back to the Mairie for a glass of wine. We discussed this but decided not to go; we needed to have lunch and play more music, but N and I thought if we had been on our own it would have been the right thing to do; we could have met more people and showed them that les anglais thought it was an important event, and that we felt part of the village.
J, B and S enjoyed their stay very much - kindly said it was a five star establishment, and seemed to find it difficult to believe that it was as much pleasure for me, cooking for such appreciative guests and having all the music to listen to. N and I agreed it did us a lot of good to speak French for a couple of days; we had agreed to keep off politics as we suspected that all three guests were not entirely happy with the election result, but in the event, ended up discussing - and learning a lot about - the processes of French government and elections. For example, most people don’t vote at the Mairie as I had thought, but in schools and crèches; this seems to make sense as voting is always on a Sunday, so presumably the schools and crèches are unoccupied. Brigitte had been involved in sorting though family archives recently, and was interested when I told her about - and then showed her - my War Letters project. She liked the fact that we had both been working on the same period in history, although her family correspondence seemed far more wide-ranging.
I was particularly pleased with Tuesday dinner. I had finally managed to find some white candles (at the village shop) which fitted two silver candlesticks that came with the items from my mother’s house, and which matched the silver cutlery. We started with hard-boiled eggs and home-made mayonnaise, served à la Delia Smith with cornichons and black olives, a new and tasty combination. I then served fillets of trout (usually salmon but there wasn’t any, and this was even better) covered with pesto, pecorino cheese and breadcrumbs, also D Smith, followed by a dessert which I haven’t made for over 30 years, for which I have recently been trying to collect together the ingredients, and from time to time mislaying the recipe! It finally all came together though, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, Amaretti biscuits and cream, and more Amaretti biscuits to eat with it. N produced a particularly good white wine too, which accompanied the fish beautifully.
This morning the façade men were due at 9.00 but were late. Jean and Brigitte left about 9 by car; after many thanks for having looked after them so well; I insisted it had been a pleasure. I went with Simone to the bus stop to catch the regular 10.19 bus to L’Aigle to get her train back to Le Mans, while N waited for the men, whom I found busily spraying the front of the house with a high-powered water spray when I got back. They have also cleaned the front paths in the same way, and the paving stones are now their original colour - a pretty pinkish tone - instead of dirty grey. They wanted to continue tomorrow, but we are due to go to Paris in the afternoon, so they will come back on Monday morning to give the façade two coats of paint, (weather permitting) but need to repair a little piece of cement first so have the key to the wood shed to get that done while we are not here.
The rest of the day we have spent in being very quiet - I am beginning to think one of the best things about having guests is when they leave, although it has to be said that the water-spraying was very noisy too - the main event being the consummation for lunch of our very first home-grown artichoke.
May Day in France meant as usual a Jour de Fête, La Fête du Travail as well as La Fête du Muguet (lily of the valley) so that markets and florists were full of sprigs and plants, and pâtisseries were selling cakes decorated with real or plastic lily of the valley.
There is no lily of the valley in our garden, but the newly enlarged flower bed is looking marvellous, with red and white tulips, the original roses, lupins, transplanted irises and peonies and lots of little pansies and other small flowers. The cherry blossom has been over now for a week or so, but there are already lots of little green fruits which I see when I look up to hang washing on the line. Last year the apple blossom arrived as the cherry blossom finished; not so this year, there seems to be hardly any apple blossom at all, just lots of green leaves. We think this may be the kind of tree which has a large harvest every other year, which is fine by me as we still have lots of apples in the freezer and on the shelves in the outhouse. The red rhododendrons are just coming into flower, the new pink ones from last year are a little behind. The hydrangea foliage is wonderfully green, although no flowers yet as they are very sheltered, but there are one or two flowers on the oleanders. The roses are almost in flower, in fact the « hidden » bush between my study window and the road is a mass of buds, and today I have cut roses for indoors from it for the first time, two vases full, reddish yellow.
May Day also meant the Foire à Tout at La Ferrière sur Risle, very different from last year when we (and family guests) went in the pouring rain and cold. This year it was warm and sunny and consequently far more difficult to park, as there were so many extra visitors. We had to park so far down a road leading out of the village that the man in the next car said any further and we should be in Paris!
It always amazes me that there are the same kind of things on sale every time; for example at any given fair there are always at least two or three bedpans; and some animal cages, aquariums and pet beds, presumably complete with the ghosts of long-departed pets. There are also several books on slimming, whether the owners have been so successful they don’t need them any more, or have given up in despair, is not clear. Less interestingly, there are always lots of children’s clothes and toys, knickknacks from the 1970’s and coffee cups which appear to have come from cafés.
The La Ferrière sur Risle fair is a bit more varied however because of the monthly antique fairs there, so the usual junk was diluted amongst more unusual items, for example a large white cardboard box labelled Christian Dior de Paris, containing a voluminous white net wedding veil, fastened to a small headdress of white flowers, also labelled Christian Dior de Paris. I would like to know who bought it, if anyone. There was a Bible in eight volumes for 10 euros, and lot of interesting furniture, including a mirror which I thought might do instead of the one we saw at the antiques barn - at a much better price - but N thought it wasn’t big enough.
Since the last fair, and since he found a huge empty wine bottle abandoned at the bottle bank (it wouldn’t fit in the hole at the top) N has been collecting interesting old bottles for a display in one of the outhouses, and managed to find a couple more at La Ferrière sur Risle. He also bought two nineteenth-century framed fashion prints. I bought a little sign saying « Vestiaires » which I thought would do for the coat cupboard and a video of the film « Sense and Sensibility » part of which I saw on TV recently, but my best buy was a footstool. I have been looking at/for these for some time now, and admired one I saw on a BBC antiques programme; mounted on rockers with a slatted part on one side (for the feet) and an upholstered part one the other (for the calves). The one I found was just such a model; the upholstery is golden velvet, so blends in nicely with everything here, and it was 6 euros! It needed some dusting and cleaning and all the joints tightening, but is wonderfully comfortable. What is more, it means that the white plastic footstool has now gone out into the garden as an outdoor coffee table, something else I was looking for at the fair. (We had a nice little wooden one from IKEA, but had to keep bringing it in whenever it rained.)
Since then N has decided that the framed prints would make an admirable birthday present for his daughter, and that the mirror bought at the fair last week - the frame of which he has since gilded - is to be given to the other daughter. This gives him an excuse to buy things at fairs, without having to decide where to put them once they are home. It also means we can take them in the car with us in 3 week’s time, and not have to worry about buying something postable.
Over the last month or so lots of new film channels have been added to our satellite TV possibilities; films of all kinds, old, new, French, English, American, comedies, classics and so on. It means checking through hundreds of lists of films in small print in order not to miss anything, and so far I have seen « The Talented Mr Ripley » several weeks ago, and last week « Psycho » which I very bravely sat up late to watch on my own, and one afternoon this week « Maurice » from the novel by E M Forster. Each film seems to be shown a few times over a few days, which makes it easier not to miss. It certainly makes up for there being no cinema near here. Nothing else very interesting at the moment, but a few more towards the end of the month (when we will probably not be here!)
We have been enjoying the peace and quiet in the garden, and not having to go anywhere in particular. N is trying to practice Brahms ready for next week, and I have spent some time re-drafting my Will, using N’s as a model. It has taken him some months to sort out the best way of doing this, and managed at last to discuss it with a solicitor (someone at the same firm who acted for me with my house purchase) when we were both last in Paris. My own Will was something I was leaving until all the guests had gone, and I’m pleased to say it is now more or less finished, and we hope to see the solicitor again when we are next in Paris. The other thing I am pleased to have finished and out of the way is my tax return - not very complicated, but the first time I have done it on my own, as last year the lady at the tax office in Verneuil filled it in for me. N has not received his yet; Saint-Denis must take longer then LNL.
I have also managed to do two lots of exercise DVDs, including the new one, and am enjoying smaller and simpler meals, especially getting back to my usual pre-guest breakfasts (grapefruit, yoghurt and a small piece of toast) instead of croissants, although they are nice occasionally. Today we have both been to the hairdresser, so are both nice and tidy. My usual stylist was not there, so I was cut by the younger woman who usually deals with N; we had a nice talk about gardens and cats.
Saturday 5 May 2007
Yesterday was my birthday, so we had decided on a day out to Caen, somewhere we’ve not been to since arriving in Normandy, and, like Rouen, easy to get to by train from Bernay. The weather was a shock; cold and cloudy with temperatures a lot lower than Thursday, when I was sitting in the garden in a sleeveless T-shirt, thinking it was so hot I should have to go in. Yesterday I had decided to wear my new suit, but had to wear a raincoat over the top and was still cold, wishing I had socks on. It didn’t actually rain all day, but rather coloured our impression of Caen.
We hadn’t been able to get a street plan of the city, either before we left or at the station - an uninspiring modern building presumably built after the bombing of WW2 - but on coming out found a tram stop and took one to a stop marked City Centre and Tourist Office. Unlike at Rouen, it was quite a distance. We then found a very old church called Saint Pierre, both of us surprised as we knew there was very little of the old Caen left, and further surprised when we went in as it was actually warmer than outside! (Usually, especially in Italy, it is a relief to get out of the heat into a cool church.)
We found the excellent Tourist Office, and spent some time there; not only was it warm but there was a lot to look at, and we got a street plan and I found some nice postcards, and an interesting free English-language magazine for people living in Normandy. (I thought perhaps we should tell them about the Lexique. We need to get some handbills made.) The most interesting thing to see seemed to be the Château, so we made our way there, up a very grassy, very cold and windy hill.
It was William the Conqueror’s castle; he seemed by far to be the most notable figure in Caen, but as far as I was concerned the best thing was the Musée de Normandie, lots of Gallic and Roman things to see, maps and layouts, and quite a few 19th century things - pottery, costumes, farm implements, not surprisingly lots of things for cider-making and dairy equipment, but not much from the centuries in between! In fact N asked why there were no medieval exhibits, and was told that they preferred to have real relics to models or pictures, which presumably meant they didn‘t have any. They did have good postcards however, and much cheaper than at the Tourist Office.
After this we wandered down a nearby main street full of little shops, but remarkably few restaurants. I nipped into a branch of Sephora while N looked in another church and we finally decided on a modest little restaurant (mainly in order to get warm) where I had an tasty open Greek sandwich and N had fish. Not the most memorable of birthday meals!
The two things N remembered from his previous visit to Caen were the Abbaye aux Femmes (for nuns) and the Abbaye aux Hommes (for monks) both high monuments, still visible high above the more modern buildings. After lunch we set off for the Abbaye aux Hommes; the original building had been added to in the 18th century and part is now used as municipal offices. We saw guided tours advertised and on enquiring found they took an hour and half, which is rather long if you’re only there for the day, so declined but were told we could visit the chapel to see the tomb of William the Conqueror, which we did, and were very pleased to have seen it.
On coming out we found ourselves in front of little shopping centre, which looked attractively warm; so went in and N spent a long time looking in FNAC and I looked mainly in card shops, but also at Maisons du Monde. After that it seemed to be time to make for home, so we found the return tram to the railway station (the woman in the next seat had a cat in a travelling basket and was busy telling all the passengers how it had jumped out of a fourth floor window and broken its front paw, and this was the third day running they had been on the bus to the vet …….) At the station we had to wait 45 minutes for the next train, so had tea outside a café opposite; outside rather than inside as N found it too smoky. By the time the train arrived we were very cold indeed.
Once back at Bernay station it was still quite early, so we called in at the supermarket to buy some birthday dinner and special offer champagne (I had imagined we would be back quite late having had a large lunch, so hadn’t planned anything.) We also went to the garden centre as N wanted to replace two more currant bushes, and I said I would get a new watering can - as a sort of birthday present from me to us both; the one I brought from Cambridge having finally died, in spite of N’s clever repairs. We wanted to do the garden centre shopping on Friday rather than having to make a special trip today, as there was food shopping to be done at Champion this morning (much nearer) for the musical guests due on Monday and N is still trying to find time to practise Brahms. When we got back to the house in the evening it was so cold we switched on the heating again.
Wednesday 9 May 2007
Sunday was the second round of the presidential election; the excitement mounted all day (although not much to be seen in our village) and the TV coverage got more and more dramatic - although very professional - until the result was announced at 8.00; the next president of France will be Nicolas Sarkozy, not really a great surprise.
For the string quartets visit, Jean and Brigitte were coming from Paris by car in time for lunch on Monday, and N was due to pick up Simone from L’Aigle station at about 2.00, so we hoped J & B would arrive reasonably early, in time for N to have some lunch. In the morning I went along to the market to get strawberries, raspberries and cheese, and found myself looking a large poster advertising painting, re-roofing and re-surfacing of façades; the last word caught my eye as not only did we never have a response from the original « façade man » but had heard nothing from Monsieur A on the subject either, and were beginning to think we would never be able to get it done. The man took my name and door number, and said he would be in touch; I couldn’t help thinking it was not well timed, with N being busy with musicians.
But he turned up not long after with a colleague; fortunately before any music began - and after they had both discussed things with N said he would be back later with an estimate. Meanwhile I continued preparing salade niçoise and apple cake, and wishing lunch could be in garden as with the last guests, but it was far too cold, grey and windy. J & B arrived at about 12.45, so we had lunch straight away, in the dining room as we were only four, giving me the chance to use a tablecloth and napkins that hadn’t seen the light of day since Ainsworth Street. N left to fetch Simone before dessert while I sat and chatted with J & B.
We had just finished when Jean called that there was someone at the front door to discuss painting, and I let in the man with the estimate at the same moment as N and Simone came in the garden door. N took the painter into my study - the salon was all set up and rearranged with music stands and lamps ready for playing - while I welcomed Simone, showed her her room, and made coffee. (Jean had the Italian room, Simone the attic bedroom and Brigitte was in N’s study.)
They played various quartets - not only Brahms but Schubert and Dvorak too - all the rest of Monday afternoon and most of Tuesday. As last August - but much more peacefully! - I enjoyed cooking and preparing meals with my own private string quartet in the next room; it was amazing to come in from the outhouse or fetching the bread and there they all were, still playing! A couple of times I went in to sit down and listen properly - N specially wanted me to hear the Dvorak American Quartet - and this was an even greater pleasure, looking round at the room and the house while I listened; the sofa was pushed back against the French windows which gave quite a different aspect. Once or twice there was even some sunshine.
Tuesday - May 8 - was another jour de fête, to commemorate the ending of WW2, and like last year there were posters in the village advertising the ceremony at the War Memorial. I wanted to go as before, but wondered if the French guests would think it rather strange; in the event by the end of Tuesday morning they wanted a break and some fresh air, so we ended up going along, all five of us; first of all in the rain, then when it cleared under clouds and strong winds. We arrived well in time; the ceremony started late but began eventually, this time with the local volunteer firemen marching with banners, followed as before by a few anciens combattants and some stray gendarmes, some of them with medals.
Like last year, it was the same mixture of the moving and the comical (tinny recording of the Marseillaise; different shapes and sizes of firemen and women shuffling into position) but differently, the names of the dead on the War Memorial were all called out loud, about a dozen from each world war, each followed by the words « Mort pour la France », (Died for France) which I had heard of but never witnessed. We saw our deputy mayor lay the wreath, and the mayor - whom we had not seen before - thanked us all for coming, and asked everyone back to the Mairie for a glass of wine. We discussed this but decided not to go; we needed to have lunch and play more music, but N and I thought if we had been on our own it would have been the right thing to do; we could have met more people and showed them that les anglais thought it was an important event, and that we felt part of the village.
J, B and S enjoyed their stay very much - kindly said it was a five star establishment, and seemed to find it difficult to believe that it was as much pleasure for me, cooking for such appreciative guests and having all the music to listen to. N and I agreed it did us a lot of good to speak French for a couple of days; we had agreed to keep off politics as we suspected that all three guests were not entirely happy with the election result, but in the event, ended up discussing - and learning a lot about - the processes of French government and elections. For example, most people don’t vote at the Mairie as I had thought, but in schools and crèches; this seems to make sense as voting is always on a Sunday, so presumably the schools and crèches are unoccupied. Brigitte had been involved in sorting though family archives recently, and was interested when I told her about - and then showed her - my War Letters project. She liked the fact that we had both been working on the same period in history, although her family correspondence seemed far more wide-ranging.
I was particularly pleased with Tuesday dinner. I had finally managed to find some white candles (at the village shop) which fitted two silver candlesticks that came with the items from my mother’s house, and which matched the silver cutlery. We started with hard-boiled eggs and home-made mayonnaise, served à la Delia Smith with cornichons and black olives, a new and tasty combination. I then served fillets of trout (usually salmon but there wasn’t any, and this was even better) covered with pesto, pecorino cheese and breadcrumbs, also D Smith, followed by a dessert which I haven’t made for over 30 years, for which I have recently been trying to collect together the ingredients, and from time to time mislaying the recipe! It finally all came together though, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, Amaretti biscuits and cream, and more Amaretti biscuits to eat with it. N produced a particularly good white wine too, which accompanied the fish beautifully.
This morning the façade men were due at 9.00 but were late. Jean and Brigitte left about 9 by car; after many thanks for having looked after them so well; I insisted it had been a pleasure. I went with Simone to the bus stop to catch the regular 10.19 bus to L’Aigle to get her train back to Le Mans, while N waited for the men, whom I found busily spraying the front of the house with a high-powered water spray when I got back. They have also cleaned the front paths in the same way, and the paving stones are now their original colour - a pretty pinkish tone - instead of dirty grey. They wanted to continue tomorrow, but we are due to go to Paris in the afternoon, so they will come back on Monday morning to give the façade two coats of paint, (weather permitting) but need to repair a little piece of cement first so have the key to the wood shed to get that done while we are not here.
The rest of the day we have spent in being very quiet - I am beginning to think one of the best things about having guests is when they leave, although it has to be said that the water-spraying was very noisy too - the main event being the consummation for lunch of our very first home-grown artichoke.
# posted by Chez Katherine @ 3:24 AM 
